The downward spiral of a San Juan Capistrano property manager and avid fisherwoman led her from a comfortable life as a wife and mother to a deadly night piloting her boat in the ocean waters off Dana Point Harbor as a man was shot in the back of the vessel and left to drown, attorneys said during opening statements Tuesday in federal court.

Sheila Ritze, 42, is accused of conspiring with Hoang “Wayne” Xuan Le to lure Tri “James” Minh Dao onto her boat on Oct. 14, 2019 with promises of an overnight fishing trip. Dao’s body was found two days later, floating in the waters off Oceanside.

Dao’s slaying has become the rare murder case to be tried in federal court under maritime law. Le was convicted late last year of murder and conspiracy, and awaiting sentencing.

Now, jurors will have to decide whether Ritze, as alleged by prosecutors, knew Dao was going to be killed, or, as the defense contends, the killing caught her by surprise and she was kept silent through her fear of Le.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Scally told jurors that Ritze was aware of a plan to kill Dao and left him to die.

“She drove the boat back, leaving James in the water, the Pacific Ocean, where we know he drowned,” the prosecutor said.

Ritze’s attorney, David Wiechert, told jurors that Ritze’s life took a turn when her mother killed herself. Ritze began drinking heavily, the defense attorney said, she had an affair that led to her separation from her husband, and she began hanging around with Le, an admitted drug user and dealer with ties to Orange County’s drug and gambling underworld.

Le, who lived with his mother and older sister in Fountain Valley, was friends and drug trafficking partners with Dao, according to testimony in his trial, and the pair often transported large quantities of marijuana from orange County to Las Vegas.

Le previously testified that Dao regularly borrowed money from him, adding that Dao often gambled away the money he owed bookies, friends and marijuana suppliers. Shortly before Dao’s death, Le told others that Dao owed him $40,000, though on the stand Le would claim the debt was actually much less.

According to prosecutors, Dao would tell those he owed debts that if he died they could collect their money from Dao’s longtime girlfriend, thanks to a life insurance policy Dao claimed to have taken out. Prosecutors alleged that Le, relying on a payout from that policy, lured Dao onto Ritze’s boat and killed him.

Le – who would claim during his trial that the killing was self-defense after Dao pulled a gun on him on the boat – bragged to several people about the slaying, saying he shot Dao because he owed him money. Le wasn’t aware at the time that at least some of those people were federal informants.

Le and Ritze were both arrested in December 2019. Ritze was initially charged with being an accessory after the fact, having allegedly bought a tracking device that was later found on the car of Dao’s longtime girlfriend and helping survey for surveillance cameras around the harbor following Dao’s death.

Months later, a new indictment upped the charges Ritze was facing to murder.

The prosecutor said Ritze told acquaintances that Le was an “Asian gang member,” and bragged to coworkers that she had a friend who killed people during a conversation that was allegedly recorded by a co-worker’s daughter.

Ten days before the killing, Le drove Ritze to Las Vegas so she could attend a Billy Idol concert at the Palms Casino with her mother-in-law.

The mother-in-law has previously testified that during that trip Ritze and Le made comments about “offing” Dao over a large debt by luring him out to sea on Ritze’s boat under the guise of a fishing trip.

Le has denied making those comments to the mother-in-law, and both Le and Ritze’s attorneys have contended that the mother-in-law is simply parroting allegations made publicly by prosecutors – and outlined in news articles – after the arrests of Le and Ritze.

During the late-night lobster fishing trip with Le and Dao, Ritze “heard a bang, she looked behind her and saw Mr. Dao and Wayne struggling,” her attorney said, followed by more gunshots and flashes of light from the firearm. The defense attorney said Dao was known to carry a gun.

Prosecutors challenged the claim that Ritze was traumatized and too afraid to go to authorities, noting that she sent numerous messages to Le after the killing, including ones in which she referred to him as “my sweet Wayne” and described him as her “greatest catch ever.”

There have been no indications in either court testimony or arguments by the various attorneys that Ritze and Le had a romantic relationship. Prosecutors have described Ritze as becoming “infatuated” with Le’s “lifestyle.”

“She learned he was a gangster – she liked that,” Scally said.

Le himself previously testified that the two of them would hang out and drink and use cocaine.

“Wayne was gregarious, he loved to party and he provided the drugs to party with,” Wiechert told jurors on Tuesday.

If convicted, Ritze faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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